Lindsey Lowe jury selection begins Monday in infant-slayings case

Hendersonville woman, 26, could get life in prison if convicted of killing her twin babies

Mar. 11, 2013

Lindsey Lowe sits in the courtroom on March 5, 2013, in Gallatin, Tenn., before a motion hearing in her trial where she is accused of killing her newborn twins. / George Walker IV / File / The Tennessean

Written by

Tena Lee

Gannett Tennessee

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When some 180 potential jurors report for duty in a Sumner County courtroom Monday, Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay will brief them on the wrenching nature of the case for which they could be chosen.

“A mother murdering two infants,” Gay said in a pre-trial hearing on Thursday. “If that is such a problem that they can’t be fair and impartial…I feel it’s something I must address with the jurors head-on and see if that’s an issue.”

Twelve jurors and three alternates are expected to be chosen this week to hear the case of Lindsey Lowe, a 26-year-old Hendersonville woman accused of killing her infant twins and placing their bodies in a laundry basket on Sept. 12, 2011. The bodies were discovered two days later by Lowe’s parents, who called police. Lowe was retrieved by Hendersonville police at the dentist office where she worked on Sept. 14, and allegedly confessed to police later that day that she gave birth to the twins in a toilet and silenced their cries by placing her hand over each of their mouths. She has pleaded not guilty.

A November 2011 grand jury indictment charged Lowe with two counts of premeditated murder, two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated child abuse. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, and each of the first-degree murder counts carries a potential life sentence. Lowe has remained free on a $250,000 bond.

Gay said last week that the jury would not be sequestered and that he would discuss with them whether any pre-trial publicity they have heard will affect their decision to rule impartially. Lowe’s defense attorneys, John Pellegrin and James Ramsey, have requested a change of venue, and Gay has said he is taking that request under advisement until jury selection begins.

Jurors will hear Lowe's confession

A string of pre-trial hearings has opened a window into the strategy both sides intend to use in court.

Lowe’s attorneys have argued, for example in two separate motions that her confession to police should not be admitted as evidence.

In a Nov. 5, 2012, hearing, defense attorneys argued that police did not properly read Lowe her Miranda Rights, that her statement was coerced, and that she was operating under a diminished mental capacity.

In a February hearing — one in which Lowe testified for the first time in court — her lawyers argued that Lowe had been in police custody when detective Steve Malach came to her workplace to question her and asked that she accompany him to the Hendersonville Police Department. Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley argued that Lowe was not in police custody at the time.

In both instances, Gay sided with the prosecution. Defense attorneys appealed Gay’s Nov. 5 ruling all the way to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which denied the appeal Feb. 22.

Judge was asked to recuse himself

That wasn’t the only appeal heard by a higher court before the case even goes to trial.

After Gay denied twice a defense motion asking that he recuse himself, Pellegrin and Ramsey appealed to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. That court denied the appeal on Feb. 26, stating, “no person of ordinary prudence in the judge’s position, knowing all of the facts known to the trial judge, would find a reasonable basis for questioning the judge’s impartiality based on the grounds alleged.”

Prosecutors said in court last week that they intend to use text messages between Lowe and the twins’ father to try to prove that she planned to kill the infants to conceal an affair. DNA evidence later proved Jeremy Smith to be the father of the twins, although Lowe told police she was engaged to another man at the time the twins were conceived. Lowe’s attorneys unsuccessfully sought to have the messages suppressed, and have said they aren’t of any “evidentiary value.”

'Diminished capacity'

Lowe’s attorneys put the state on notice last fall that they plan to use a “diminished capacity” defense, arguing that she lacked the required intent to commit a crime because of a mental impairment. Last week Gay asked them to confirm that the experts they called were qualified to make that assessment. Pellegrin said Pamela Auble and William Kenner, a psychologist and psychiatrist seen by Lowe, would meet these requirements.

In November, Kenner testified Lowe has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and other impairments that can affect memory. Kenner said he first saw Lowe about five weeks after her arrest, and that he met with her between eight and 10 times since.

“It is our position that she suffered from a substantial mental disease and defect that affected her reasoning,” Pellegrin told reporters following a hearing on March 5. “It’s not an insanity defense.”

In previous court testimony, Lowe’s father Mark has described his daughter as a “model daughter” who lived at home and took care of her ailing mother since graduating in 2008 from Western Kentucky University.